Apparently Billy Beane hates all of those fine qualities and only cares about trying to make his team better. What other reason could he have for including Brad Peacock in the Jed Lowrie deal, which linked it to the Dan Haren deal through Chris Carter, which linked it to basically every other trade he’s made since he became GM. (click to embiggen)

Start with 14 draft picks, make 23 trades that cycle through 47 players and you end up with 13-15 players still in the organization. My favorite part is the direct path from Mark Mulder to Dan Haren to Brett Anderson. Other teams dream of getting back an ace when they trade an ace. Billy Beane does it.

Notes: The Orioles have been the surprise team of the AL this season, having spent 53 days in first place of the tough AL East. Like the Pirates, the O’s are finding their success despite having been outscored on the season 263-267. Also like the Pirates, they have a young All-Star center fielder leading the way. Adam Jones is hitting .298/.344/.571 with 17 home runs, 37 RBI and 9 steals. Anchoring the team behind the plate is a name all too familiar to Pirate fans: Matt Wieters. The Georgia Tech product has become one of the best catchers in the majors; just as it was thought he would back in 2007. Former Pirates GM Dave Littlefield passed on taking Wieters with the 4th pick, which is a big reason he is now the former GM.

The Bucs face Chens in back to back starts for what has to be the first time in their history. Wei-Yin (no relation to Bruce) has been a major addition for the O’s this season. Jeff Karstens strained his hip flexor in his last rehab start, so Lincoln will get at least one more turn.

I never saw this movie, but the former Swingers star says this in the ads after his son pees in a display toilet in a store. I think it sums up last night’s game very well. Something awful happened and we were powerless to stop it from happening. All that can be done is to apologize, clean up and move on.

Paul Maholm was awful. Dana Eveland was worse and was DFA’d after the game.

And that’s it. I’d rather not rehash the whole thing. Here’s to hoping tonight is better. Go Bucs.